Newborn Photography Tips

Capture details.

Tiny fingers and toes grow alarmingly quickly! I love the newness of tiny newborn fingers and toes, and you can snap photos of them easily. This is also a fun way to get creative! I used a black cloth (an extra shirt the mom handed me, actually) to capture this photo of baby toes with mom’s hands forming a heart. So fun! Unposed detail pictures like my niece’s tiny toes above are equally precious.

Let them sleep.

Sleeping newborns are happy newborns. Let them sleep, and take photos. Sleeping is how most newborns spend the majority of their time, anyhow!

Capture their personality

I knew when this little girl pursed her lips that it had to be some sort of a signature move – and it was – see it in the photo below this, as well?

Photograph newborn wisdom

YAWN!

Baby yawns are so cute – and, while some people like a crying baby photo and some don’t, I have yet to meet anyone who didn’t like yawning. Being a baby is exhausting!

Capture the family.

Welcoming a new baby into a family is an incredible experience. Record that feeling on film.

Get the parent’s perspective.

I love photos that mimic the perspective of a parent looking down at their child. You can’t get the exact angle unless you ARE the mom (or dad), of course, but you can come close. Help parents remember the feeling of down at their child for the very first time.

Have fun!

There are a lot of cute baby shoot ideas on the internet! Many involve props, which I haven’t really gotten into so far, but I love this idea of photographing a baby’s toes with the parents’ rings. So sweet!

Don’t wait for the perfect moment.

If you wait, that perfect moment may never appear – that’s actually the reason I don’t have many maternity photos of myself, and I regret that (check out these tips from Crayon Freckles for taking your own maternity photos – you don’t even need a photographer to get some great pictures!) Don’t be afraid to get creative to make a photo shoot happen. Over half the photos in this post were taken with my little “helper” either wandering around or on my back. Of course, it is easier to get the pictures without her there, but she is happy to be there (even if she was a little suspicious of my friend borrowing my camera to take this picture – I’m learning to get creative if I want pictures of myself to exist, in addition to the many I have of my family members). And, luckily, I have friends who are happy to get the pictures, even if we have to get creative to make it happen!

Do you have photography tips to share with me? How about a trick for getting diamond rings in focus? I’m really struggling with that!

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Comments

Super cute pics!! Two of my fave pics are the heart toes and the family one. I like a yawning baby too and a sad face one (but not screaming). Thanks for sharing your tips. We’re still learning and having fun with our camera. For me the problem is weeding through the photos to find the best ones.

That pic of you and Anna turned out fairly well for an impromptu shot. She is adorable!

Oh I’ve been pinning newborn photo ideas, and yours are great! I haven’t tried a true newborn photo session before but I think I’m better prepared than ever this time (though I think I am forgetting just how intense those early weeks are…). I’m taking a photography class subsidised by my city, and this past weekend I had my first maternity photo shoot ever – the rest of the class took pictures of me at the window for the natural light photography session. Some of them were quite good. Everyone was laughing about how the other kids will be jealous of this fifth baby. ;)

How fun to have a maternity photo shoot with so many photographers! I never did a maternity photo shoot, and I wish I had – it’s a nice point in life to have visual memories of. I’m so glad you got some good photos!